Mosley hopeful F1 teams can agree deal

Motor racing head Max Mosley hoped an agreement could be reached to keep champions Ferrari in Formula One after an afternoon of talks at the Monaco Grand Prix yesterday.

"I'm always hopeful and confident there will be an agreement," the International Automobile Federation (FIA) president said as he battled his way through a throng of reporters outside the Automobile Club de Monaco headquarters.

"Everybody knows what the issues are."

Champions Ferrari have threatened to walk out of Formula One after an unbroken 60-year involvement because of a dispute over the 2010 regulations and the introduction of an optional £40 million budget cap. So too have Toyota, former champions Renault and Red Bull's two teams.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, who chairs the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), said the three hour meeting with Mosley was "long and constructive' but no decision had been reached.

"FOTA will have another meeting tomorrow and then there will be another meeting with Mosley," he added.

"It was a very good meeting," added Renault's Flavio Briatore. Other team principals left without comment.

Speaking after an earlier FOTA meeting on board Briatore's luxury yacht Force Blue in Monaco, Montezemolo had said the teams were united and agreed on a final position.

"As always there has been a very good meeting, with a very good atmosphere and we are all together," he said.

"What is important is that our view of the future is absolutely in common," continued the Italian, adding that "we want Formula One, we don't want something else".

Those accepting the cap will be given greater technical freedom than any teams opting to remaining with unrestricted budgets. Ferrari, who failed to secure a legal injunction to stop the rules in a French court earlier this week, say this will lead to an unacceptable two-tier series and reduce the championship to the level of a junior category.

They want instead a "glide path" to be mapped out, allowing for a gradual reduction in costs and budgets over the next two years from the present levels of staffing and expenditure.

The FIA, which wants to bring in new teams to fill up the grid to bolster the sport against the global recession, has imposed a May 29 deadline for all to register their entries.

It has said it does not envisage a two-tier series and expects all entrants to race under the same regulations. (Editing by Alison Wildey